Device for feeding palletes to a compression station of a roofing tile forming machine

ABSTRACT

A DEVICE FOR FEEDING PALLETS TO A COMPRESSION STATION OF A ROOFING TILE FORMING MACHINE. HORIZONTALLY GUIDED FEED FINGERS, DRIVEN BY GUIDE ARMS PUSH FORWARD PALLETES TO A COMPRESSION STATION OF THE MACHINE. GUIDE ARMS ARE DRIVEN BY CONNECTING RODS HINGED TO TWO OR MORE, CRANKSHAFTS ARRANGED PARALLEL TO ONE ANOTHER. THE GUIDE ARMS ARE ALSO HINGED TO A FIXED POINT TO THE FEED FINGERS VIA TRANSITION PIECES.

July 4, 1972 is SCHADE 3,674,402

DEVICE FOR FEEDING PALLETES TO A COMPRESSION STATION OF A ROOFING TILE FORMING MACHINE Filed June 9, 1970 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

3 INVENTOR July 4, 1912 K. SCHADE DEVICE FOR FEEDING PALLETES TO A COMPRESSION STATION OF A ROOFING TILE FORMING MACHINE Filed June 9, 1970 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR K m/ i %w(z 7 M Z. W

July 4, 1972 K. SCHADE DEVICE FOR FEEDING PALLETES TO A COMPRESSION STATION OF A ROOFING TILE FORMING MACHINE I5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 9. 1970 Roa Z3 7// INVENTOR r /M \fiacla United States Patent 3,674,402 DEVICE FOR FEEDING PALLETES TO A COMPRES- SION STATION OF A ROOFING TILE FORMING MACHINE Kurt Schade, 31 Visbeker Str., 2878 Wildeshausen, Germany Filed June 9, 1970, Ser. No. 44,764 Int. Cl. A44b 1/30; B65g 25/08 US. Cl. 425-306 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for feeding pa'lletes to a compression station of a roofing tile forming machine.

A device of the kind described above is already known; two connecting rods, located on the crank pin of a crank shaft, drive two guide arms that are hinged to feed fingers. This known design has the disadvantage that each displacing movement of the feed fingers takes place in opposite direction which necessitates that the palletes, to be pushed fonward step by step, receive a sinusoidal speed course and stop at the dead centers of the crank mechanism. Furthermore, the back travel of the feed fingers must be greater than the working travel by the extent of the idle travel, so that the feed fingers have the possibility of being able to catch in the recesses of the palletes. Due to this necessary idle travel, i.e. after the dead centers, the fingers do not start at speed 0, but at a speed which represents a function of the crank angle a. Consequently this drive mechanism is given a certain output limit, because the shocks and delays cause undesirable transversal cracks in the fresh concrete tiles.

According to the present invention there is provided a device for manufacturing concrete roofing tiles or the like comprising substantially horizontally guided feed fingers driven by guide arms hinged to synchronous operating connecting rods parallel to one another, the guide arms being hinged to a fixed point and to the feed fingers.

The following advantages result from this arrangement:

Due to the flying crank pins it is possible to equip the attacking connecting rods with roller bearings. The crank pins themselves are arranged as eccentric crank pins, arranged in order to be easily able to affect a travel adjustment. All parts of the left and right guide arm are of exactly the same construction and are, therefore, submitted in operation to the same stress, i.e. the same elongation at the knife. This results in an always uniform cut in the fresh concrete.

The crank discs arranged as gear wheels run with their drive pinion in an enclosed gear box with oil bath, whereby the outer V-belt acts as torque limitation when the machine is over-loaded.

The speed course of both feed fingers no longer corresponds to the actual sine curve, but is very strongly displaced, due to the fact that about We of each total crank angle (a -240) is utilized for the forward movement of the feed fingers and only about /3 of each tot'al crank "ice angle (a is required for the return movement of the feed fingers.

Seeing, however, that the two crank pins face each other by the speed of the first feed fingers, near the respective end position, is superimposed by the speed of the second feed fingers and vice versa. This means that there is no standstill of the feed fingers (FIG. 6). This mechanism, therefore, results in a speed course of the feeding fingers that can be called continuous. In the farthest sense this would represent the ideal situation, so that at each point of the pallete the fresh tile to be for-med is produced with the same speed. If required, this ideal situation can be approached further, for example by not choosing two crank shafts, but giving the mechanism various crank shafts.

With this speed course, where there is at no time a standstill of the said feed fingers, it is possible to achieve much higher output figures or, with the same output figures, a better and more uniform ratio of compression at the fresh tile can be achieved; this corresponds to an increase of strength, i.e. a higher quality grade.

In consequence of an improvement of the invention, the following cutting knife for separating the fresh concrete at the joints of the palletes is controlled from a crank shaft and arranged as a double cutting knife. This results in half the stroke time of the individual knife. The whole cutting knife holder is moved to and fro in time with a crank shaft via parallel guide arms, of course for about A of the stroke of the feed fingers, in order to have too high inertia forces due to the dead weight of the knife moving to and fro; this would necessarily lead to inaccuracies. By adjusting the eccentric connecting rod, the speed of the cutting knifeholder can be adjusted to the pallete speed. Influencing of the maximum speed of the cutting knife holder is done by slot adjustment and angle alteration lvia the outer control lever of the intermediate shaft.

The present invention will now be further described, by Way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and in which;

FIG. 1 is a front view of a device for manufacturing concrete roofing tiles,

FIG. 2 is a side view of the device in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is -a top view of the device in FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a front view of the device in FIG. 1 with cutting equipment following at the left,

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic presentation of the crank drive in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 6 is a graphical presentation of the feed finger speed related to the crank angle.

The device relating to the invention has a drive mechanism 2 fixed onto several columns 1. The drive mechanism has a frame 3 to which an electric motor 4 is hinged; the position of the latter is adjustable by means of a clamping element 6. The electric motor is connected, via a belt drive 7, with a center shaft 8 located transverse to the longitudinal sense of the device. In the upper part of the device there are two crank shafts 10, 11 parallel to the center shafts 9 and at the same distance from the latter. A pinion gear 12, arranged on the center shaft, is geared with spur wheels 14, 13 on the crank shafts 10, 11.

On the free sides of the spurwheels 13, 14 eccentric crankpins 15, 16 are arranged on which connecting rods 20, 21 are slipped. The free ends of the connecting rods 20, 21 are slipped, to about T-shaped guide arms 24, 25. A T-branch piece of each guide arm is hinged to a fixed point at 24a and 25a, while each of the free T-branch piece is hinged to two feed fingers 27 and 28 respectively, via a transition piece 27a and 28a respectively. The feed fingers are hinged to a slide body 30 which moves between horizontal guides 31 fixed to the .columns-1.-

(FIG. 2).

As shown in FIG. 4, after the device as per FIG. 1, there follows at the left a known and, therefore, not described design for forming and compressing the-fresh concrete on the palletes 32. Following the forming equipmentat the left, there is a cutting equipment 35 with two cutting knives 37 arranged on a cutting knife holder 36; the cutting knives are moved vertically via a pneumatic cylinder. The cutting knife holder is placed on four supports 38 normally in vertical position. These supports are arranged in pairs and are hinged not only to the cutting knife holder, but also to the machine frame 39.

.At the free end of the crank shaft (FIG. 1) there is a crank eccentric 22a which is hinged to a guide arm 40a via a connecting rod 22b. The guide arm 40a ends in a guide arm 400, by intercalation of a shaft 49b. The free end of the guide arm 40a is hinged, via a toggle link 41, to the first pair of supports 38 of the cutting equipment is moved to and from in longitudinal sense of the device. The device works in the following manner: Driven by the electric motor 4, the guide arms 24, 25 move the feed fingers 27 with their slide bodies 30 on the guides 31' simultaneously forward or backward, whereby the feed fingers, doing a pushing movement as indicated in FIG. 5, attack the 'palle-tes 32 at the recesses provided for this purpose and push them forward toward the forming and compressing station. At the same time the cross shaft 40b, with the guide arms 40a and 400 and the toggle link 41 of the cutting knife holder of the cutting equipstation of a tile forming machine, a machine frame, synchronously operated eccentric crank pins rotatably mounted in said frame, a pair of connecting rods pivoted with one end to said crank pins, respectively, a pair of l-Lshaped guide arms, each of said guide arms comprising a base member and an upright member extending from said base member, the free end of each said upright member pivoted to the other end of said connecting rods, respectively, one end of' each of said base members pivoted to said machine frame, respectively'a pair of feed fingers pivoted'to the other end of each of said base members, respectively, said feed fingers hinged. to a pair of slide bodies, respectively, a pair of horizontal guides for said slide bodies and motive means for said eccentric crank pins.

2. In' a device according to claim 1, wherein said crank pins are mounted at an angle of relative to one another. i

3. In a device as claimed in claim 1, in which a cutting equipment for cutting the fresh concrete roofing tiles is provided, a cutting knife holder of which is movable to and fro in longitudinal sense of the device and is connected to a crank shaft of the device, via a slipped on eccentric connecting rod, by intercalating' a: toggle link, a guide arm and a connecting rod. v j I 4. In a device as claimed in claim 3, in which the guide arm consists of two guide arms fixed toan intermediate shaft and one of the guide arms has a'slot for adjusting the hinged connection with the connecting rod.

5. In a device as claimed in claim 3, in which the knives are arranged in tandem in the cutting knife holder spaced to the dimensions of a roofing tile.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 7 1,141,600 6/1915 Baker 198,-221 X EDWARD A. SROKA, Primary Examiner 7 US. or. X.R. 19s 221; 425-310, 452 

